On-line sales and auction systems are well known. Typical of on-line sales system are web-based direct purchase systems such as shopping carts. These systems allow the purchase of items offered for sale at fixed prices. Typical of on-line auctions is the auction site Ebay™. Ebay is a web-based auction site that allows users to bid for items offered by suppliers. The auction remains open for a fixed period of time. The highest bid before the auction closes receives the goods.
As with most on-line auction sites the Ebay site is a single auction site. By this is meant that suppliers must list their goods on the Ebay site, and only the Ebay site. Other products, such as flowers, are sold through multiple auction sites throughout the world. Generally such auctions require a buyer to be present but recently remote bidding has become available.
Auctions for perishable goods (such as fish, cattle, coffee and organic products) are often run as Dutch auctions. A Dutch auction commences at a start price and the price is gradually reduced until a buyer accepts the price. A Dutch auction is generally faster than an English auction (where buyers bid up the price) because only a single bid is required to close the sale.
One approach to a Dutch auction is to conduct the auction electronically by showing the bid value as a countdown clock. A number of buyers monitor the clock and ‘click in’ at a price they wish to accept. To ‘click in’ a buyer located at the auction site may simply push a button. This is most commonly implemented for remote buyers by displaying the countdown clock (often called the auction clock) on a personal computer connected to an auction server and allowing the remote buyer to ‘click in’ by pushing a key or clicking the mouse. It is convenient for the personal computer of the remote buyer to be connected to the auction server via a direct link, although an internet connection is also possible.
A number of conventional on-line sales and auction systems are known that allow buyers to place a bid on an item when the item reaches a desirable price.
WO 01/53913 discloses a system for conducting a Dutch auction online between a plurality of potential bidders. The system generates a sequence of values for a comparative bid parameter that is used by an originator of the auction to create a first view of the Dutch auction for the originator of the auction. The system also transforms a value selected from the sequence of values into a bidder comparative bid parameter value. The transformed value is used to create a second view of the Dutch auction for the potential bidders to compare. As such, the system allows bidders to transform bids based on the comparative bid parameter values.
CA 2350994 discloses a descending bid auction system that allows pre-registered bids to be submitted to an auction site. The system includes a pricing device, a reserved bidding device, and a bid processing module. The pricing device decrementally alters an auction price for an item. The reserved bidding device allows buyers to pre-register a bid amount, while the bid processing module determines when the pricing device reaches a price matching the pre-registered bid and awards the sale of the item to the buyer that submitted the bid. A remote auction terminal may be used to display multiple clocks regarding multiple products for sale at the auction site.
CA 2394575 discloses an auction system including a server system for sending current price messages and for receiving bid messages, wherein the messages are transmitted using single IP packets. The system includes an interface that includes a clock device for displaying a current price of an item based on the received current price messages.
CA 2489132 and CA 2528781 discloses a method for carrying out a reverse-auction over a network. A potential bidder uses a computer to access a web server that displays a description of an article to be auctioned and a table in association with the description. The table associates a price that diminishes over consecutive intervals of time running from a predetermined starting time and terminating at a predetermined ending time. The server responds to an entry of a bid by correlating the time of entry of the bid to the price associated with the time interval in which the time of entry of the bid occurs and records the price associated with the time of entry of the bid and the identity of the bidder.
EP 0828223 discloses an automatic auction method that makes it unnecessary for a potential bidder to stay before an auction finishes. The method includes the potential bidder selecting an auction subject from an on-line, real-time auction site. The potential bidder then creates ordering information to establish a desired price for the auction subject, a number of items to purchase of the item subject, and a highest possible price the bidder is prepared to go to buy the item subject in competition with other bidders.
Although remote viewing of an auction clock and remote bidding benefits the buyer the buyer is still locked into a single sale at a time. In fact, most remote auction sites require the buyer to download and install proprietary software that is only useful for a single market or auction house.